Persepolis

Ten-year-old Marji navigates the newly mandatory veil at school, discovers her father's secret photography of street protests, and learns that her grandfather and uncle were imprisoned under the Shah.

Marji discovers heroes of the revolution are being imprisoned by the same revolution they fought for. Her uncle Anoosh is released from prison, befriends Marji, and is then re-arrested and executed as a Soviet spy.

The Iran-Iraq War begins. Bombs fall on Tehran. Marji's family experiences air raids, friends die, and the regime uses the war to justify increased repression while Marji's parents try to maintain normal life.

Marji enters adolescence under the regime — first cigarette, first encounter with the morality police, first grasp of how the Revolution specifically targets women's bodies and freedoms. Her parents manage to get passports and take a rare trip to Turkey.

The war grows closer and more brutal. A missile hits Marji's neighborhood. A neighbor family is killed. The regime's enforcement of Islamic law becomes more violent. Marji witnesses what the revolution has done to an entire generation of young men sent to die.

Marji's political consciousness sharpens into something beyond her parents' ideology. She begins to understand class, complicity, and survival as distinct from resistance. The family navigates social surveillance and narrowing options as the war continues and the regime consolidates.

Marji's parents make the decision to send her to Vienna alone. The family spends her last months in Tehran preparing — emotionally, practically, and philosophically. Marji fights with the regime one last time.

Marji boards a plane to Vienna. Her mother faints at the airport. She looks out the window at Iran until it disappears. The final panel is black.